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Have dinner ready in 30 minutes with this family favorite Oven Baked Chicken Tenders recipe; it’s an easy weeknight meal all will love.
Chicken strips are the ultimate finger food and these flavor-packed Oven Baked Chicken Tenders are no exception. These crispy tenders are perfect for lunch, dinner, and everything in between.
Made with a seasoning blend of paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, brown sugar, and more, you won’t be missing the crispy coating of a breaded chicken tender.
Do more with chicken! Check out some fan favorites like this Strawberry Caprese Chicken Salad, Pesto Chicken Power Bowls, and Crispy Buffalo Chicken Salad!
Baked Chicken Tenders Recipe
Whether you call them chicken tenders, chicken tenderloins, or chicken fingers, this easy chicken recipe is a great way to enjoy juicy and tender chicken without the added calories of breaded or fried chicken tenders.
BONUS: these flavor loaded strips of white meat are kid friendly and a great main to a side of cheesy Grilled Cheese Roll Ups for a fun kids meal.
Looking for another cooking method to enjoy chicken tenders? Give these Air Fryer Chicken Tenders a try.
Ingredients for Oven Baked Chicken Tenders
Meat: you will need chicken breast tenders. If they don’t have chicken tenders, grab a pack of chicken breasts and cut them into strips when you get home.
Seasoning: we are going to be pulling out all the stops to achieve great flavor with these chicken tenders. You will need paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, fresh parsley, dried oregano, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, and a pinch of salt and pepper.
How to Make Oven Baked Chicken Tenders without Breading
1. Melt the butter. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Slice the butter into 1 tbsp cubes and place it in a shallow dish. Melt the butter by microwaving in 30-second increments.
2. Make the seasoning. In a small mixing bowl, combine the paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, fresh parsley, dried oregano, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, salt, and black pepper.
3. Season the chicken. Dredge the chicken tenders in the melted butter. Lay the coated tenders in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle the seasoning mixture over both sides of the chicken tenders.
4. Bake the chicken. Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the internal temperature has reached 165° F. When finished, garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
Recipe Variations and Substitutions
Butter: If you are looking to avoid dairy or added calories, you can swap out the butter for egg wash.
Seasoning substitutions: Italian seasoning and garlic powder make an excellent combination.
Breading: looking to turn your oven-baked tenders into crispy chicken tenders? Consider using panko breadcrumbs to make Panko Breaded Chicken, regular breadcrumbs, or crushed pork rinds.
What to serve with Baked Chicken Tenders
Sauce up your tenders with some of my favorite dipping sauces like BBQ sauce (or barbecue sauce), honey mustard sauce, Big Mac Sauce, or my personal favorite homemade Chick-Fil-A Sauce!
My favorite side dishes to serve with them are Avocado Corn Salad, Sweet Potato Cubes, Quinoa Apple Salad, or Air Fryer Vegetables.
What temperature should chicken tenders be cooked to?
Ensure your chicken is fully cooked by using an instant-read thermometer and making sure the chicken is cooked to 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Eating undercooked or raw chicken is unsafe and can put you at risk for salmonella.
How to store leftover chicken tenders
Leftover chicken tenders are easy to store. Once they have reached room temperature, transfer chicken tenders to an airtight container and keep them in the fridge.
The leftover chicken tenders can be enjoyed the rest of the week for lunch, a protein-filled snack, or chopped up and cut into smaller chicken pieces and tossed on top of a salad.
Helpful Kitchen Equipment
Nesting bowls: for prepping, I like having a set like this on hand. The set includes a small bowl, medium bowl, and large bowl. One great prep set will take you a long way in the kitchen. However, it is also important to have a shallow bowl, like this. Shallow bowls make it season for rolling meat in seasoning or egg wash.
Sheet pan: these pans have so many different names. You might call it a rimmed baking sheet or even a cookie sheet; either way, when making baked tenders, you will need one!
Wire rack: this might come in handy to cool your chicken before serving. If I’m meal prepping, I like to cool the chicken until it’s about room temperature before transferring it to the fridge and storing it for recipes later in the week.
Other Easy Chicken Recipes You’ll Love
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Oven Baked Chicken Tenders
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 pound chicken breast tenders
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar
- pinch of salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350° F. Slice the butter into 1 tbsp cubes and place it in a shallow dish. Melt the butter by microwaving in 30 second increments.
- In a small mixing bowl, combine the paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, fresh parsley, dried oregano, cayenne pepper, brown sugar, salt, and pepper.
- Dredge the chicken tenders in the melted butter, then lay them in a single layer on a baking sheet. Sprinkle the seasoning mixture over both sides of the chicken tenders.
- Place the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes or until the internal temperature has reached 165° F. When finished, garnish with fresh parsley if desired.
Air Fryer Instructions
- Preheat the air fryer to 375° F.
- Place the chicken tenders in a single layer in the air fryer basket. Air fry for 5-6 minutes on each side.
Video
Notes
- Store leftover seasoning in a small airtight container
I love chicken tenders and these were oozing with flavors!!!
Yum! I can’t have bread so it was nice to find a recipe for baked chicken tenders without breading. And you don’t even miss it thanks to the tasty seasoning!
In the future if you want to coat something in breadcrumbs, try using crushed pork rinds as a substitute.
I love how easy these baked chicken tenders come together! We made some homemade ranch to serve them with and everyone loved them.
I love that!
My (very picky) family woofed these down and they’re already requesting that I make them again soon. Awesome recipe!
My kids thoroughly enjoyed these chicken tenders and have asked me to make them again! Thank you!
Aw I love to hear that!
So delicious! Can’t wait to make it again!
Can u marinate the tenders in Italian dressing then coat with the seasonings?
Yep you can definitely do that
I marinated the tenders in buttermilk for about an hour before starting the recipe. How did yours turn out with Italian dressing?
This recipe has been a really special recipe for me.
These were as absolutely delicious. They had wonderful flavor and were very moist.
Can I cook these in a air fryer? And do you know the temperature and timing?
Hi! Yes, they are so good in the air fryer. I suggest 375 F for 12-15 minutes, depending on how big your chicken tenders are. Make sure the internal temp has reached 165 F before removing from the air fryer!
How to get a very tender chicken taste?
Tasty enough but we found these to be very wasteful on the butter! We could have easily heavily dredged with a quarter cup, and with butter being a fairly expensive ingredient these days, it’s sad looking at my bowl of raw chicken tainted melted butter left over.
I was short on butter, so, I soaked the raw tenders in buttermilk for about an hour and skipped the butter altogether. They were tender and tasty.
Try using mayonnaise instead of butter, a little cheaper and you only use what you need.
I knew right away that was to much butter so before I even started I used 1/2 of that-no waste here
Wowwww… So delicious! wort it
very clear and good article easy to understand. Thank you
So easy! So delicious!! My husband said, “Babe, you gotta print this one out!” and I did 🙂 Thanks!
aww i love that!
These crispy tenders are perfect for lunch, dinner, and everything in between.
Swimming in butter. So greasy. The flavor was good but all of that butter was unnecessary.
Butter is life you are wrong.
Chicken strips are the ultimate finger food and these flavor-packed Oven Baked
I love the taste of it! I added reggiano and it came out great!
Hi Jordan,
Thank you for sharing this recipe!! Made them last night and they were delicious!!! My family really enjoyed them! I will definitely make them again and again! I forgot to add the brown sugar to the bowl of spices and didn’t dredge them in butter; I just put a small amount of oil on the baking sheet and drizzled a little more on top of the coated tenders. YUM!
I’m so glad you enjoyed! Olive oil is a perfect healthy swap!
This was so quick & easy & my family loved it. It’ll be a new go-to for us
These were amazing! I make a lot of chicken for my lunches but mostly sauté it. This recipe was so easy and delicious! Clean up was a snap too as I lined a baking sheet with foil. This will be my go to recipe when I need chicken quick!! Thank you so much!
This was delicious! The chicken was so moist. I only used a 1/4 cup of butter, but I should have followed the directions. It would have been nice to have the extra juice to put over my rice and chicken.
Excellent! My family, doing low carb, loves this. I used about 1 1/2 lbs of chicken and the butter/topping was perfect. Funny side note – the chicken was still cold when I dipped it so the butter started to coagulate. Lesson learned
It’s ok, it will melt again as soon as it goes in the oven 🙂
Chicken strips are the ultimate finger food and these flavor-packed Oven Baked Chicken Tenders are no exception, my whole family loved them!
Do you know if you can use this on tofu? My son’s girlfriend is vegetarian and I like to make the same for her that we make for us. Just curious if you would know. Thank you!
I haven’t tried it with tofu, but I do have an air fryer tofu recipe on my blog that I love!
Loved these!
This was delicious and I cooked at 325° on convect bake for 25 minutes and I probably could’ve taken them out a few minutes sooner because they were at 176° internal temperature
These chicken strips are the ultimate finger food and my whole family loved them
everyone loved this!!
Oh my goodness!!! I have to cook super healthy in our home because our son is a Type 1 diabetic. Usually when I try a chicken recipe it is bland and boring. The combination of these seasonings was amazing. I substituted olive oil instead of butter however, the flavors all together are to die for.
loved this and it was so easy
This was so easy!
This was delicious!
The chicken was so tender, juicy and tasty!! Very easy to make and it was a big hit with the whole family!
I loved this so much!
These are delicious. I have a family member that is allergic to oregano, but they were still good even though I left the oregano out. I didn’t have fresh parsley so I used dried parsley. They were still delicious. I am going to get fresh parsley for my next batch. I used the few left over tenders in a salad. These will be perfect to pack in a cooler and put in a fresh salad for picnics.
Thank you so much, glad to hear you and the family enjoyed!
Delicious
The recipe didn’t work well for me. Too much paprika, which overpowered everything. Not enough salt and pepper. Thank you for the recipe. Everyone else enjoyed it, so it must be something I did! A tablespoon of paprika seemed like a lot .
I’m so sorry to hear it didn’t work out for you! What kind of paprika did you use?
Very yummy & delicious Great Chicken tender recipe! Will definitely make it again! Thank you!
Thank you so much, glad to hear you and your family enjoyed I will give it a go!
25-30 is way too long, definitely use a thermometer
Thanks for your feedback, perhaps your chicken was thinner than mine was but yes, you should always check the temperature when cooking.
I really enjoyed it!
Thank you so much, Delicious, glad to hear you and the family enjoyed
Thank you for the recipe. Everyone else enjoyed it, so it must be something I did! A tablespoon of paprika seemed like a lot
Great chicken tender recipe, which can be made MUCH healthier by skipping the 1/2 cup butter and using a fraction of the amount of olive oil. Just drizzle small amount olive oil on chicken and rub over tenders before seasoning. All the yum and healthiness of seasoned lean protein without all the yuck of artery clogging saturated fat of excessive butter, if you’re concerned about heart health.
Very good!! Not used to cooking with oregano, but gave it a unique and yummy taste!! A keeper for sure!! Gonna use boneless skinless thighs next time, for bigger pieces of meat…Hubs loved it!!
So glad you enjoyed! Fresh oregano is delicious on eggs if you want to try that next!